Champion Martin Njoroge receives keys to his new car from Chess Kenya president Bernard Wanjala. BELOW: The ladies’ winner Sasha Mongeli. Photo/PD/Gibo Zachary
The 2021 edition of theannual Kenya National Chess Championship saw new crowned in the just concluded competition held between December 26-30, 2021 at Luke Hotel in Nairobi.
It was first staged on January 1, 1937 when the Nairobi Chess Club was tasked to manage the European section and the Chess Committee of the Railway Indian Institute Nairobi running the Indian game.
The winner from the European players, called the Kenya European Chess Champion, then played the Kenya Indian Chess Champion for the year’s overall title.
Today, the championship has evolved with locals taking part and the 2021 edition has witnessed youngsters Martin Njoroge and Sasha Mongeli crowned the new king and queen in the game of wit as they outwitted their opponents in the thrilling five-day event.
Rapid playoffs
The duo have been showing indication of taking over the reins in the game with Njoroge, 25, coming to the limelight in 2014 when he represented Kenya in the World Youth Chess Championship (WYCC) in Durban, South Africa, as the best national Under-18 Boy.
He then went on to finish third in the Las Vegas Millionaires Satellite Chess Festival qualifier held in Nairobi in 2016 and has never looked back with 2021 being his biggest year as he emerged the national champion and walked away with a brand new Mazda Demio.
Sasha, on the other hand, earned her Women Fide Master (WFM) title in September 2018 when she made her maiden appearance for the Kenya Chess Women team at the 43rd World Chess Olympiad in Batumi, Georgia.
Her exemplary work saw her scoop the 2018 Sports Journalist Awards Kenya (SJAK) sports personality of the month as well as sports personality of the year at theTechnical University of Kenya after leading her team to win gold at the 2018 East African University Games.
2021 saw her beat all odds to be crowned champion and took home Sh100,000.
On his way to glory, Martin Njoroge met James Kabui while two-time and former champion Mehul Gohil (2014, and 2019) faced Candidate Master (CM) Ben Magana, (also a two-time champion, 2006, and 2013) in the final ninth rounds of play with Njoroge winning.
However, the titanic battle between Gohil and Magana ended in a drawneeding to a playoff to determine the overall title winner.
In the playoffs, Mehul won the first match and seemed likely to successfully defend his title but Njoroge had other plans as he fought back bravely to win the second rapid game and force a blitz playoff which he resoundingly won 2-0 to emerge new champion.
Sasha, also 25, tied on 24 points with Triza Mwenda forcing the overall title winner to be decided through two rapid playoffs which Sasha both comfortably won to emerge new ladies national champion.
Triza finished second with defending champion Woman Candidate Master (WCM) Joyce Nyaruai coming third as Jumba Gloria, Cynthia Obondo and Ether Karanja also impressed finishing fourth to sixth in that order.